Blog, Blog, Blog...Blah, blah, blah.

Finally, the end of the school year has arrived and I can bask in the glory of my first year as a Instructional Technology Coach. In September, I decided that this would be the school year that I would blog. After all, blogging was simply a once a week commitment; but if things really got tough, I would DEFINITELY do it once a month. Right? Artifact after artifact would serve as a reminder of my wildly successful coaching journey (I thought). Today I am writing during one of the last days of the school year. The journey was great, the artifacts are plentiful, but the blog DID NOT happen. I did not blog, not one sentence, syllable or word. To this I simply say blog, blog, blog.

Each year many educators set goals to improve their practice, increase learning, and build stronger relationships with students and parents. Blogging would be the way that I could measure my success and more importantly, reflect on areas to improvement. It would serve as way to evaluate my practice as a teacher and a Tech Coach. Blogging would be the catalyst for change; a way to be better and serve teachers and students. But blogging DID NOT happen. So what does that mean? Well, nothing...

Although blogging is a great tool to communicate, share ideas, and showcase student and teacher work, it is not the only way to be reflective of one's journey. In lieu of blogging I maintained a website that featured the wonderful ways teachers challenged students to integrate technology into their learning. As coach, I sent out Friday "Tech Bytes" which offered a list of 5 quick tools teachers could experiment over the weekend and use in class on Monday. I met with hundreds of teachers and students and was able to assist in creating lessons and assignments that fostered the powerful 21st Century Skills: communicating, collaborating, critical thinking and creating. Finally, I increased my professional network by adding over 100 educators to my PNL on Twitter and Google Plus.

As we reflect on the 2016-17 school year its important for teachers to own what went right. I am a little disappointed that I did not maintain a blog of my coaching adventure this year, but I am proud of what I was able to accomplish. So blogging did not happen, but professional growth and learning did happen. The next time you feel distraught by what you were NOT able to accomplish as a teacher, quickly think about all the things that you were able to do and what DID go well. And for those lofty goals that somehow fell by the wayside in the daily grind of teacher-hood, I simply say blah, blah, blah!